Hey, welcome Bill. Thanks for joining us today. I'd like you to talk about your experiences and new product developments and the specially your position. So let me just start by maybe describing your new position here at Tupperware and how that came to be? Well first of all, thanks for allowing me to have this opportunity. I greatly appreciate it. It's one of my passions, product innovation is really something I've fallen in love with over the past 20 years. But today, I'm actually the executive vice president of not only product innovation but the global supply chain for Tupperware Brands. Yeah. So I think that's what's unique. I don't know how many companies have done that but they've taken both the innovation department and their marketing department and put them together in one organization. I kind of grew. I've been with Tupperware for 21 years and throughout this, I started surprisingly on the finance side. We were spun off in 1996, before some of your students I'm sure were born. And actually, to start the treasury group here at Tupperware. From there, I moved into a re-engineering of I.T., finance, procurement, and H.R., and then over to the strategy group where I actually went against what Tupperware stands for, were a direct selling company for those of you who don't know and we entered a retail channel target. And we rolled out Tupperware products, Tupperware branded products in the Target store, 1,200 in the U.S. It was highly successful. But against really our brand heritage and our sales force. So, we pulled back, but I did that in the strategy group. From there, I actually moved over to global marketing for the first time and it was really my first exposure to marketing and product innovation. I was brought over there because we were struggling to get new products out. From there, after spending about three years, I moved over to run marketing and business development for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, came back about eight years ago now to become in charge of product innovation and marketing. And then three years ago because somebody who had run the supply chain for over 20 years, a great leader. But again, when you run something for 20 years, you really don't transition your organization and transform it to meet today's needs. So they asked me based off my prior experiences of transforming organizations to come over and lead the supply chain. With that, we've also put a chief marketing officer in place, who was in charge of product innovation. With that person, we moved back to Europe earlier this year. So I've now assumed responsibility believe it or not of both the supply chain and product innovation and global marketing like that kind of interfaces. Yeah. I think that's a fascinating capability to me. This is what our course at the Coursera and our course in the University of Illinois are trying to get students to understand today, that you need to be able put both of those aspects together should you do business today. That's fascinating. So can you distinguish between marketing and supply chain? It's difficult that I was just presenting at the CFO conference for Tupperware. Tupperware is actually a global brand. We operate in 86 different markets around the world. So we brought our CFOs in. And I stood up on stage and I talked about the transformation of our supply chain. The reduction of our manufacturing footprint. Looking at it from a consumer-to-consumer, from a supply chain perspective, from the time we captured the order, the time we actually delivered the order and not just from a manufacturing perspective. So I had that discussion. And then I actually left the stage and I came back and said, "Okay guys, now I'm going to tell you the vision of where we're going to go from a marketing perspective." So you actually have to be somewhat bipolar in cases and argue with yourself, because there are some conflicts that you face. As long as you always have the best interest for the organization in mind, it does work out. So did you find there's a process that sort of covers these or you bring different processes to this market and supply chain and innovation? From organization transformation perspective, we use similar processes. I am definitely a process driven person, which is why I've been able to shift from field-to-field within an organization. Because again, I break it down. I find out the critical path items. And I'd find out the skill sets required along with how long the task underneath those milestones actually taken. And from there, I can build up. So I use that similar stage gate type process as I transform the supply chain organization, or as I develop a new product in the product innovation group. So, the process is the same, though the skills underneath those and the milestones are completely different. So do you have a little portfolio about your new product and do you look at market penetration or product line extensions or market extensions? Do you categorize your type of new products? First of all, from a product marketing perspective, we run category based strategy. So, we are in the kitchenware, so most of you guys know. So, but within there, I will look at food storage and then I will look at kitchen prep items. I will look at what I call a move category or an ongoing food and drinking solution. So there's categories within there. So we manage the categories themselves and the product and range life-cycles within those categories. So again, it's a category-based strategy with underlying product life-cycles, range life-cycles. And within that, if I take a look at how we develop products and how we fill this pipeline, it's not so easy. That's probably the most difficult things. But we do categorize these projects. It's a little bit different than most people do. It's probably more layman's language, where I really try to refresh products, which when I look at refreshing, it's really through color, it's through special material effects or just simple adjustments to how the products themselves are made up or the second way I look at those. And that's really mainly with our existing consumers. So if I kind of you know step back and take a look at how you guys, in your book, Jim have defined it. It's more market penetration, right? How we penetrate our current customers even more? Second aspect of this. Again, is somewhat of a market penetration, but it's really more of a product improvement. And if I look at it, it's a renew strategy where in a renew strategy, what I will do is, I will extend my product line. So if I have a set of goals, I will add. If I have a 1.5 liter, a three liter, I'll put a five liter in there. So I can actually extend that line or I'll add plates or I'll add serve ware with it or I mean flat ware with it to actually extend that line, or I'll redesign it. The beauty of Tupperware is, we control our channel. So I can sell the same products for many, many years tapping into new consumers. But I can also update some of those designs that have the same basic functionality in there. So that's kind of the second way I look at it. And then finally, I define it as radically altering. So its when I enter a new category. And entering a new category, you say, what is Tupperware done new? Kitchen prep, we do knives, we do cookware itself, we do electronic products, we actually have a thousand dollar water filter system that we sell in China. And it's a huge business for us today. Each one of these things as I mentioned, there are a thousand dollars and we sell probably about 150,000 of those a year today in China. So again, it's a growing business for that. We'll enter other categories, going forward too, and we constantly experiment and play with this, and that's a whole radically alters how I kind of define that. And for you, that's the product creation or market expansion, not just in your matrix. So how do you look globally if you have a successful product in one part of the world, do you just take the same product to another part of the world or how do you do market research? We've established goals upfront. When you have these category-driven development process you know your market penetration by market at least the major markets. We also look, we subdivide our markets. We have a group of prime markets, we call it 15 prime markets around the world that generate of course, it's the whole 80, 20 rule. More than 80 percent of our sales and 80 percent of our profit from these 15 markets out of the 86 that I've mentioned. So we focus on those markets. And those are a group of markets that are both emerging markets and highly established markets. So I'm selling in India as group of products that are very similar to those that I'll sell in Brazil or South Africa. And then when I get to Western Europe or France and Germany, the price points that I can sell at and the sophistication of consumers, I sell a different portfolio. But as I look at this, it's about 80 percent of my products that I developed on an annual basis, can flow to all of my markets. The prime markets both established and emerging markets. And that's really my target and try to get that to be about 75, 80 percent global in nature. Are some markets easier to forecast and predict your business? Forecasting is always a disaster at every company. I wish it was more of an exact science. It's always one of the most difficult things to do. Tupperware forecast a little bit different because we control our channel as I said. So, when we forecast, our metrics or our drivers that we use actually forecast. Our sales force members that we have and more specifically, active sales force members that we're predicting to have over a period of time. So the better we are at this. It all depends on the sophistication of the tools we're using. And for the most part, we've put in some tools, and I'll give a plug, we put in the mantra in a few markets and it's definitely increased our professionalism. But forecasting is very difficult in both established, emerging markets, those markets that we've been in for over 65 years, versus those that we entered five years ago. We struggle with forecasting in all of them, it is definitely an inexact science which is why you need to have flexibility in your supply chain. Let me ask you another question. Where do ideas come from in this very diverse organization, from technologies to supply chain experts sort of bad ideas, where do they come from? First of all, there is no bad idea. Tupperware runs an open innovation platform. And one of the things that you have to do if you sit in my chair, or in one of my vice presidents, or director's chair, is you have to be humble and you always have to be willing to listen to ideas. The ideas themselves, yes I have these category teams driven by product marketing, and I would say more than 50 percent of the ideas do come from them and the work they're doing. Another portion comes from the ethnographic research that my design team is out doing around the world, while they're going to consumers home, and living in consumers homes for weeks at a time, trying to figure out what are those unmet needs that consumers haven't even identified yet. Then I also have my sales force. I have 3.3 million people out there selling Tupperware products and they love the brand, or they won't have joined to sell our products. They won't have joined to sell our products so I get feedback from them. And finally my associates. We have 11,000 people around the world actually working for Tupperware. And every time I show up they're like, "Did you see this product in this store? So the ideas aren't the hard part, it's actually how do you prioritize those ideas, and how do you actually bring innovation to those? Because Tupperware, we're a premium brand which means, we're never going to be able to compete on price. So we always have to put something special to differentiate ourselves from our competitors out there, that allow our sales force to go out and credibly stand up in front of people, and sell something at a price higher than somebody could buy it at Target or at Walmart. I have one personal question to ask. We have a friend that bought years ago, a jel-ring mold or jello mold? Yes. And you discontinue it. And he really liked to see it again, so is there a way that- What do you do with lifecycle, and do you really discontinue some products? We do discontinue products as a line item. But we will bring because we own the tools. And as I mentioned, the supply chain itself, I control the manufacturing of more than 50 percent of the items today in our own owned factories around the world, we actually have 17 factories around the world. So those molds I have stored. So that jello mold that you're talking about, where it definitely did bring innovation to it because there's seals on both sides, liquid tight seals. So as most of you know, one of the problems of actually developing jello and serving it, is demolding it. And because of the second seal that actually releases the vacuum, and the jello mold actually falls right out of the product. So what we do is, we rotate those products back in seasonally, and we rotate those around the markets too. Because again, selling in 86 markets, I can't. We sell a lot of ware, Tupperware products are bulky. So you can't really ship these things all over the world, so I try to manufacture local. And I rotate the molds and try to give somebody freshness. And I try to bring back and refresh with the old products like the jello product. Do you want to give any advice to the students that are listening to you? If somebody wants to get into a product innovation, which as I mentioned at the start of this, is one of my passions. The first thing you have to do is be ready to accept the challenge. Because product innovation is probably the most difficult thing. And you heard how diverse my background is, it's probably the most difficult thing I've ever done. Because you start with a clean sheet of paper and you have to determine where you're going to invest the company's assets. But on the other side, it's the most rewarding thing you'll ever do. You're creating, you're solving consumer's needs. And the beauty of Tupperware as I mentioned, was we control the channel. So if you can sell me, and we can develop this wonderful solution, within 66 weeks or just over a year, I can be selling millions of those. So it's very, very rewarding too. But coming back to your question. The first thing that you have to be is, you really have to be as I mentioned, humble, open, you have to be really consumer focused and observant. Because you have to be able to perceive these needs. So if that doesn't necessarily meet your personality, you have to kind of second guess. The second thing you have to do is, you have to really bring in as you're joining the team because products aren't developed. There is no idiot savant when it comes to the development of products or identifying what products are going to be a success. You have to come with a technical skill. Be it in industrial designer, be it in engineer, whatever it happens to be and the product that you're bringing, be it a mold maker in my case, be it a product marketing expert, you have to be able to come in and bring an expertise to this group, and form, and be a contributing member of a team. And be willing to step in where other people need help. And then finally, the last thing that's probably most important is, never lose the ability to play. In the development and innovation of new products and new solutions for consumers, a lot of it is play. You have to come in, you have to experiment, you have to be creative, you have to come into work, and want to have fun. If you're serious and you're going to try to grind to a solution, you will fail. Thank you so much today Bill for joining us. And I look forward to more discussions in the future with you. It's great Jim. It's been my pleasure. Thank you.
